1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to protective structures and methods for making the same, particularly, to a protective structure for protecting carbon nanotube film and a method for making the same.
2. Description of Related Art
Carbon nanotubes are tubules of carbon generally having a diameter of 0.5 nanometers to 100 nanometers, and composed of a number of coaxial cylinders of graphite sheets. Carbon nanotubes have interesting and potentially useful thermal, electrical and mechanical properties, and have recently attracted a great deal of attention for use in different applications such as field emitters, gas storage and separation, chemical sensors, and high strength composites.
However, the main deterrent to the application of carbon nanotubes is the difficulty to process, due to the powder form of the carbon nanotube products. Therefore, forming the separate and tiny carbon nanotubes into a manipulable carbon nanotube structure, such as a film, is a significant step in the utilization of carbon nanotubes.
Recently, as disclosed by patent application US20080248235 to Feng et al., a free-standing carbon nanotube film has been fabricated. The carbon nanotube film is directly drawn from a carbon nanotube array. The carbon nanotube film includes a plurality of carbon nanotubes joined end-to-end by van der Waals attractive force therebetween. The carbon nanotubes are substantially parallel to a surface of the carbon nanotube film, and thus, the carbon nanotube film has a good transparency. The carbon nanotubes in the carbon nanotube film are substantially aligned along the same direction, and thus, the carbon nanotube film has good properties, such as thermal and electrical conductivities, along the direction of the aligned carbon nanotubes. Further, the carbon nanotube film is free standing and adhesive, and can be laid and attached on any desired place. Furthermore, the carbon nanotube film is flexible. Therefore, the carbon nanotube film can be used in many different fields. For example, the carbon nanotube film can be used as a transparent conductive film in a touch panel or a liquid display, which can be flexible.
However, this kind of carbon nanotube film is very thin. In the carbon nanotube film, the adjacent carbon nanotubes are only combined and attracted by the van der Waals attractive force therebetween, and thus the force is relatively week. An external mechanical force applied on the carbon nanotube film may easily damage or destroy the film. Further, the carbon nanotube film has an extremely large specific surface area, and so is very sticky and difficult to handle, particularly when a large amount of carbon nanotube films are fabricated.
What is needed, therefore, is to provide a protective device for protecting carbon nanotube film.